Heavyweights of the stage battle for best actor prize

KEVIN Spacey, Alan Rickman and Kenneth Branagh are in the running for honours in this year's Evening Standard Theatre Awards.

The longlist announced today has Spacey and Branagh in an impressive list of eight contenders for best actor.

Spacey is chosen for his barnstorming appearance in Speed-the-Plow alongside Jeff Goldblum at the Old Vic, which he runs. Branagh is bidding for glory after taking the title role in Chekhov play Ivanov. The Donmar production is still running at Wyndham's Theatre.

Some of their rivals have been chosen for Shakespeare performances. Jonathan Slinger is in contention for the Royal Shakespeare Company's Richard II and Richard III; Simon Russell Beale for Much Ado About Nothing; David Calder for Lear; Chiwetel Ejiofor for Othello.

Stage and Harry Potter star Rickman is longlisted for a rare turn as the director of Creditors, by August Strindberg, at the Donmar Warehouse. Other best director hopefuls are Lucy Bailey, Katie Mitchell, Emma Rice and John Tiffany, whose Black Watch marched into the Barbican.

All face serious competition from two directors with multiple hits under their belts: Rupert Goold, who won best director last year for Macbeth; and Michael Grandage, artistic director of the Donmar. Michael Boyd completes the best director longlist.

Best actress contenders include Helen McCrory, Lesley Sharp, Margaret Tyzack and Penelope Wilton. The list for best play includes suffragette drama Her Naked Skin by Rebecca Lenkiewicz; Never So Good, a life of Harold Macmillan by Howard Brenton; and Christopher Shinn's original take on US presidential election night, Now Or Later.

There is no longlist for the Charles Wintour award for most promising playwright - three names will be announced, with the rest of the shortlist for the awards, on Friday.